EXPLORING MEDIA ARTS

To begin my project I had to think about (regarding my time limit), what environments would I be in or apart of this week. This thought immediately took me to my plans for the weekend in which I was going to a couple of bars for a friends birthday. I decided to digitally reproduce this environment by recording each element separately. Due to noise conditions they are not as polished as I would have liked them to be but it gets the idea across. Using the people talking, eating, drinking, music and general background noise I’ve recreated the bar and pub environment. Always noisier than necessary most of it does sound like a bit of a shambles but each sound is loud in itself that once put all together you immediately get an idea of where you are regardless of being able to hear each component clearly. To produce this I used the voice memo feature on my iPhone by recording where I was, those around me, the noise they made while eating and drinking and some of the audio playing over the speakers (which in the end didn’t come out very well so I’ve hyperlinked the source) and compiled the sounds together on Hokusai a program similar to audacity for iPad into one finished product. The program itself is very simple and didn’t give me the same options as audacity for sound editing but considering it was an app I downloaded I did go for the free version which could mean I got the simplest format.

When I first began to brainstorm my ideas for the transmedia project I initially thought of how I would get people interested in following the clues and becoming a part of the movie itself.

Posters, unique codes, websites, flash mobs, bird’s eye view group imagery, product placement and game apps were some of the ideas I had considered in creating an alternate reality that could connect with actual reality. The practicality of this project was a huge aspect that I had to think about as well as by connecting two separate worlds you have to adhere to the restrictions of that world.

The final product of my transmedia project was an idea about a movie. The idea for the movie being a “Soylent Greens” and “V for Vendetta” adaptation set in the future in which a corrupt Government has taken all the pure, clean water supply as they have destroyed the natural resources through toxic dumping. They have repackaged a questionable new strain called “Woda” from Woda Industries and give it to the people in weekly supplies, via a barcoding system tattoo on the back of the neck of every civilian. The water supplies are distributed according to compliance and in exchange for manual labour work from the civilian’s that promotes this toxic dumping. If the people revolt or act out against the Government in any way their supply isn’t given that week. Eventually the anarchist group known as the A.W. or anti Woda, know the truth about where the clean water comes from and what happened to the old natural water supplies. They create an alliance with other civilian’s in the film and create the A.W website and revolution to overthrow the Government.

My idea about how to create the transmedia project and to best advertise my website I further looked into the ways that “The Dark Knight” and Prometheus films advertised. By involving members of the public that shared an interest in the movies they were able to make them feel like they were a part of the movie without actually being in the filming for it. Then by attending the premiere of the film they were able to fully understand the role that they played in it.

A.W Project

The Posters go up:

I first thought about how to initially spread the idea or the curiosity about the film in a simple media form. Something impacting and effective but also didn’t have to show much about the following film or set of activities the public would take part in. By setting up posters all over a chosen city of the films debut, in this case Melbourne CBD is the first point of contact between the movie reality and the real world participants. A poster of the back of a man’s head, shaven and looking down, tattered clothes and a green dark overcast shadowing in order to make it look like he was in a room or a cell. The focal point of the posters is the barcode on the back of the man’s neck, which has the initials A.W below it. I chose to not print any other words on the poster but to let the audience figure out the meaning of the poster itself. That which being the barcode, an actual QR code on his neck. The audience member photographs the QR code which takes them to the second part of the transmedia plan, the website.

The Website is activated:

Once our audience takes a photo of the QR code on the posters it takes them to a website. Whilst they don’t know exactly what it’s for, this is the first time they get to see and understand what the film is about and what the posters are or going to mean. The website is one that the anti-Government or A.W group have created in the film. The website is designed as a safe place for the group to meet, talk and organise their overtaking of the Government and Woda industries. Whilst not an extravagant website, it gets the point across as it is more of a forum and shows the first glimpse into the Government’s Woda strategy. My website layout was designed by myself but created with the help of a family friend Chris Taranto- Software developer.

The Anti Woda logo is centred at the top of the page. A black background with red font say the words “Don’t drink the water” are the focal point of the website and whilst having a humorous connotation are designed to reinstate fear into those words.

Company Logo and Anti Company Logo:

Creating the company logo I used an existing logo for a company called Sterling water.

technologies and the font Arkitech which I downloaded from a font’s website.

Original:

Woda Logo:

The Website and Anti Woda Logo:

The Anti Woda Logo is essentially the opposite of the first logo. I have changed it to black and inverted it so it no longer looks like the original but still holds the same shape. I have then put A.W for Anti Woda underneath the logo to still advertise the alliance but does not give their name or their mission away.

The Video:

There is also a video on the website which is an advertisement or really an instructional video for the people in the movie so they know that they’re being watched and any kind of revolt or disruptions to the work will result in punishment and a cut off of their supply of Woda for the week. The video is an idea based off of the “Happy Birthday David” video from the promotional campaign of Prometheus and the instructional video played in “Battle Royale”. A hybrid of the two with a dash of the character, Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games franchise.

The video opens with the “Woda Enterprises” logo and cuts to the spokeswoman for the company/ the instructor who is the focal point. My friend Emily Colbert being so kind as to help me film. The non-diegetic sound is soft, unnatural sound but has the feeling of a soothing spa ad. She is quite soft spoken but what she talks in such a way and with such conviction and she seems ecstatic about the company, their ideals and what the people have to suffer for in order to serve it. The girl in the videos juxtapositioning to the man in the poster shows that she is working for the Government and shows the hierarchy structure of money and power from the Government to the people of the movie. She is standing in front of a white background with bright lighting to create a bright and sterile almost unnatural environment.

The video ends once again with the company logo. After the video the person visiting the website finds the unique login code and is asked if they want to join the alliance and overthrow the regime. The person is asked for their name, email address and postcode and is told to await further instructions.

The video is an advertisement from the Woda Industries people. It features one of their their spokesperson for the company.

Script:

“Hi, didn’t see you there.

I’ve come from one of the many sites that Woda Industries is made up of.

What’s Woda you may ask?

Woda Industries is the no.1 drinking provider for the planet.

Woda Industries has over 10,000 water packaging sites in all countries.

Woda industries wouldn’t be where it is today if not for all its hard workers.

We’re a family at Woda Industries but like any family we have our rules.

Each employee has received a Woda barcode on the back of their neck.

Make sure you get your barcode scanned every day. Once at the beginning of work, and once at the end of your shift.

If you do not get your barcode scanned you and your family will not receive your water supply for that week.

Also anyone caught slandering or plotting against Woda Industries will be punished accordingly.

So remember at Woda Industries we’re working for a better tomorrow, today. “

Storyboards:

Initial storyboard using storyboard creator a free online programme. Very simple clip of using the fake company logo and close up shots of my actor. Just a simple mapped out version of my concept.

The video of an actual water packaging pant are ones available on YouTube. I feel they add to the film as it is something to look at and while she is talking about and to the people of that world they show its cold metal, conveyer belt machines and I believe it says something about how they treat their people like machines.

Online mp4 to wav file converter programme for changing the scenes I filmed into audio files to play over the existing footage of a water packaging factory.

Reflection on the video:

On reflection of my video component of this project I believe it is not the best it can be. Filmed on my iPhone in a lounge room it is not up to a standard I would be happy with. I had to download and test at least three different editing programmes which all had their limitations. Then my computer decided to crash and delete my work therefore I had to settle for Windows Live Movie Maker. It is not polished, It deleted the last couple extra shots I had saved in my files, there is a problem with the audio but regarding my limitations I believe that my work portrays the ideas I had in mind when starting this project.

The People are given their instructions:

An email is sent to each person who wants to join. In the email its states “Welcome to the alliance. Follow these instructions if you want to stay alive”. Below is a list of time, date, location and a 4 digit code. It is not said what the code is for but that they will need it once they arrive to this place. The time and place is altered to each person’s postcode and name and they are sent to specific locker in locations, e.g.: train stations, swimming pools, airports etc. tailored to them. This is what the unknown four digit code is for. Inside each locker is a ticket to the movie premiere, a temporary tattoo of the QR barcode which we saw on the man’s neck in the first poster and an actual bottle of Woda water. They are asked to wear the tattoo to the premiere on the back of their neck otherwise they will be spotted and their lives and mission may be in threat. They are also asked to bring the bottle of Woda but are warned not to drink it.

The Premiere:

At the premiere as they watch the movie they see the “alliance” in the movie too have temporary tattoos and they all find out the secret behind “Woda” water.

The whole idea of this transmedia project is to actually build a secret alliance outside of the movie in the real world made up of people who have step by step become part of the team. This idea is to make the participants feel as though they have played a part in the movie which makes them develop a special connection to it and continue to blog and write about their experiences with the tasks they have performed and the movie itself. This will hopefully generate ticket sales and maybe even the opportunity to do it in multiple countries.

Additional Aspects:

If haven been given more time, a bigger budget and a team of ingenious marketers that could help me literally think out the ideas on a grander scale. My 3rd part of the trans media project, if been given that chance to actually do it would to be to create a second poster to go around the city, but one that includes the members of the public who are following the clues. Once the members are given the locations of the lockers, rather than going straight to the premiere of the movie they would be given a piece of cardboard. One side with an image and other side with a time, date and exact co-ordinates to take this paper as well as the instructions to go to this spot at this time and hold the image side above their head. This would eventually gibe the members who are following the clues a chance to talk face to face about what’s going on, why their following these instructions and what it could all mean. This would literally be them forming an anti “Woda” alliance in real life without them knowing it. The pieces of cardboard that they have held above their heads in unison would have a bird’s eye view taken of it and would create the new poster campaign. The new poster would be of the same man on the first poster and the star of the film now facing the audience and looking angered and holding his hand in the air in a fist. We would also see how frail and de hydrated he looks. The image is later shown in the movie as a signal for the anti “Woda” alliance, a sign of strength and unison.

Using Mockingbird I have created a flowchart of how the audience will interact with each of the components of the campaign whether they follow the clues, choose to ignore the messages or go to online forums to find out more in order to keep going with the process of finding the clues.

Week 9 we went into more depressing subjects about how the web structure the internet holds does not reflect the structure of the people who produce, use and remove the waste the products create.
In a society where such a strong use of and internet we structure is used the hierarchy structure still exists for the people using it.
It’s said that only a small percentage are connected in the web whilst the majority are creating the web for us. Weaving it so to speak with games and social network programmes.
By using the internet we are these peoples advertising. By posting a status on Facebook about a photo you took with Instagram and a place you went to lunch for in the city, you’ve talked and advertise 3 maybe more products. Digital speech has become a type of digital labour. Through talking through the products we create more speech about each product. Basically we’re doing most of the work for these companies and their advertising and not bring paid for it. ” communication has itself become a mode of social production. The way we are treated as not only consumers but also as the workers for these companies is pretty intelligent of the marketers. It’s cheap, global and they don’t have to do it themselves. Just by word of mouth these companies and owners of the companies are making billions off of us. A kind of slave labour if you will as we are more and more becoming slaves to the technology, not being able to imagine life without. What was once considered a “good slave” was that if they were give the freedom to walk away they wouldn’t know better to actually do it. But in the hierarchy structure we are not at the bottom. Being the consumers we hold a higher rank than those who create the actual product for us. The workers in Foxconn factories and the miners of coltan take bottom rank. All in all some pretty depressing stuff but gives us a good idea how the web structure network has tried to change these things.

Making networked cultures has given me a lot to think about the internet as a whole and how I use it. Being able to discuss how the internet came to be and the History of the internet gave me a better understanding of the internets original purpose and what need it was trying to meet and how it became so marketable. By meeting those basic needs of communication the internet has developed beyond that. Over the years it has evolved and changed so much so that some people don’t know how to live without it. Day to day life has changed so much so that we need to ask ourselves if the internet has evolved so much has it taken mankind back two steps. In order to keep producing and updating new technology it is at the use of people. From people being the marketing tools for programmes just by using them and even hashtaging the technology, to actual slave labour and poor working conditions where the technology is built. It’s not a nice reality but that’s what it is. Even discussing how technology spreads through transmedia can be related back to the plague and how other infectious diseases spread. I choose to look at the internet as an evolving technology which is helping mankind not hindering as it has changed how we as humans communicate and educate one another.

I have chose these 5 blog submissions from the past semester as I believe that they were topics I connected with and was able to properly discuss and explore the ideas that were introduced in those weeks.

Discussing the ideas of tansmedia has opened my eyes up to how limited I believed the internet to be. Not only is it visual and textual but the initial idea of communication came from sound, or the idea of transmitting sound through technology and has revolved many times over into a whole new form of communication. The whole idea of the internet is a form for people to better communicate with each other,and over the years it has advanced beyond the idea of just sending sound, or codes but into multiple media texts over a huge network. This in relation to a more marketable aspect of sending information, transmedia in which the initial idea of the message originally communicated

Communication has always been the idea behind creating the internet and it’s structure. The whole thing is designed on the main points of communicating with other users, your ideas through different medias.
The emergency and the impending threat of war has always been the jumping off point for creating the internet. Being able to communicate with allies, being able to send and receive information about war was the difference between winning and losing. Communication began with binary code, the method of sending messages through the use of on and off which turned into the method if morse code, which structured this method using various dots and lines to communicate.

Morse code was first sent in the 1830s after Samuel B Morse pioneered the movement by planting the transatlantic cable below the sea between upper New York area to Ireland. The cable was A collection of copper wires wrapped in hemp and tar, this style of candling is still in use. These methods of communication have opened up for screen and text in such a way that we now market the idea of communication differently. To better sell your product a whole range of transmedia aspects must be looked over to find the best way to market your idea or you become irrelevant or unexciting in such competitive market. You need posters that link to websites that have separate Facebook and Instagram pages which then take the audience on a wild goose chase all over the internet and the real world to find out that the message is being marketed to them through their own actions. Messages over the internet have devolved back into just human interaction, which in turn they take and further discuss it online which creates more and more conversation. These somewhat primitive under water cables still keep us connected but now connect us through all 5 senses, not just sound.

Network media and the spread of ideas is perceived both positively and negatively. As a reflection of the system and the network it has been a huge advancement in how fast and wide spread we can send information. However it has also become an unstoppable force of constant messaging and transfer of media, ideas and also viruses. Viral media is contagious and easily spreadable and adaptable. The network has connected us in such a way that viral media is forever circulating and transferring that it is similar to an actual virus and how it spreads.

People have been obsessed with concept of viruses and how they spread since the plague. The way in which it spread throughout Asia and Europe has been studied and even modernised with the idea of zombie films and even movie marketing. Zombie films have been a huge enterprise for the box office. People’s obsession with a Zombie race or an overrunning of a virus that the human race has to combat has intrigued people for years. Once known as groaning slow moving brain munchers, the beloved zombie has evolved into a sprinting, agile and powerful killing machine. Zombie movies underlying meanings have usually been a discussion or a reflection on society and capitalism or rather the idea we are consuming the faster than what can reproduce. These films depict a world where networks are bad as they promote the spread of a virus. This is a pretty close reflection of the internet. Through transmedia advertisement, memes, anything can be so easily shared and are now so tailored to each user that they are constantly being spread throughout the network. They are spreadable and adaptable and never-ending it would seem.

It seems that the way we share information has evolved so vastly that they are now more compact and adaptable that they have become unstoppable. Youtube videos, chain emails and memes are so popular as they are short but they also are videos which evoke feelings of joy, empathy and are enthusiastic down to the last detail. However because they have been circulated so much they are perceived as something purely for entertainment and usually at the expense of others. Memes now carry such a negative connotation because while one ingenious and hilarious they have been adapted, scrutinised and remade so many times over the connection with the person in the original video or picture is lost therefore the feeling of empathy is gone too.
Communicating and spreading ideas through the network has been a huge advancement in technology and connects people in ways never thought possible. But because it is so large and so widespread the humanity in it lost. Peoples empathy or connection with things they would be confronted with in real life is lost and it seems we’ve desensitised ourselves from connecting emotionally as well as technologically.

Week 9 we went into more depressing subjects about how the web structure the internet holds does not reflect the structure of the people who produce, use and remove the waste the products create.
In a society where such a strong use of and internet we structure is used the hierarchy structure still exists for the people using it.
It’s said that only a small percentage are connected in the web whilst the majority are creating the web for us. Weaving it so to speak with games and social network programmes.
By using the internet we are these peoples advertising. By posting a status on Facebook about a photo you took with Instagram and a place you went to lunch for in the city, you’ve talked and advertise 3 maybe more products. Digital speech has become a type of digital labour. Through talking through the products we create more speech about each product. Basically we’re doing most of the work for these companies and their advertising and not bring paid for it. ” communication has itself become a mode of social production. The way we are treated as not only consumers but also as the workers for these companies is pretty intelligent of the marketers. It’s cheap, global and they don’t have to do it themselves. Just by word of mouth these companies and owners of the companies are making billions off of us. A kind of slave labour if you will as we are more and more becoming slaves to the technology, not being able to imagine life without. What was once considered a “good slave” was that if they were give the freedom to walk away they wouldn’t know better to actually do it. But in the hierarchy structure we are not at the bottom. Being the consumers we hold a higher rank than those who create the actual product for us. The workers in Foxconn factories and the miners of coltan take bottom rank. All in all some pretty depressing stuff but gives us a good idea how the web structure network has tried to change these things.

When Taylor and I joined in a group to brainstorm ideas about how are networked storytelling film would go she came with the idea of two scenarios, her point of view from a trip to Darwin and another from Melbourne over the Easter break.
The idea grew into creating two separate story lines that would flow through one another with the use of certain characters or images that matched up. A linear timeline would connect our seperate holiday plans into a story better than a choose your own adventure narrative would do.

Timeline
The screenshot of this timeline is one that Taylor and I compiled, as well as a list of our separate filming tasks to do over the break. The timeline being a linear pattern contrasting Darwin and Melbourne. The timeline is within one day beginning with early morning and into night. Each events is compiled in sequential order to create a feeling of time passing and parallels between the two videos.

Mockingbird
My filming took place at a camping festival over the Easter weekend that I work at called Boogie in Tallarook. Unfortunately leaving a nice camera in my tent wasn’t ideal so I did rely on my iPhone for the filming, it got the job done but is not as high of quality as the filming could have been. Taylor filmed through Darwin’s Northern Territory, both rural areas and CBD with a Sony HDR-CX240E Handy cam. Having used two different recording devices the film isn’t as seamless as what it could have been as Taylor’s is a higher resolution and my iPhone shots were taken vertically and through the editing process wasn’t something we could fix or I could retake. It does make the match up of the shots a little choppy but we wanted to take that risk in filming completely separately in order to really give the audience and ourselves a two worlds combining finished effect.

Our choice of editing programme was windows live movie maker, we assembled both of our corresponding shots within the movie timeline in the order we had brainstormed earlier. The first mock up we left the background and filmed sound audible with the background song- ‘Mikhael Paskalev’s I Spy ‘. The filmed sound made the video sound unfinished so we agreed to mute our filmed scenes and incorporate sound effects such as the airplane sound Taylor sourced by downloading through Freesound and edited through Audacity.

When putting the rinsed product all together we experienced a few problems to do with the different recording devices, mine being on an iPhone was an .mov video format and Taylor’s on a Handycam being an .mts were not compatible with the editing programmes. Taylor used a free online video converter on her laptop to covert the files into an mp4. Format making them compatible with Windows live a movie maker.

Taylor and I worked together well considering our limitations with being two separates states and filming without direction. We’ve compiled the video and audio well together so that, while the shots don’t flow seamlessly from one to the other the viewer gets this idea that it is two different perspectives which parallel one another. Taylor’s choice of sound effects and audio really compliment the video as a lighthearted adventure piece about two separate people.
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To begin my project I had to think about (regarding my time limit), what environments would I be in or apart of this week. This thought immediately took me to my plans for the weekend in which I was going to a couple of bars for a friends birthday. I decided to digitally reproduce this environment by recording each element separately. Due to noise conditions they are not as polished as I would have liked them to be but it gets the idea across. Using the people talking, eating, drinking, musicand general background noise I’ve recreated the bar and pub environment. Always noisier than necessary most of it does sound like a bit of a shambles but each sound is loud in itself that once put all together you immediately get an idea of where you are regardless of being able to hear each component clearly. To produce this I used the voice memo feature on my iPhone by recording where I was, those around me, the noise they made while eating and drinking and some of the audio playing over the speakers (which in the end didn’t come out very well so I’ve hyperlinked the source) and compiled them into Audacity. By exporting the files I was able to attach information about the track from my itunes to abide by the Soundcloud copyright laws in order to post it there.